... everyone's credibility is available for a few extra bucks. To be honest, 1.5M USD is a pretty damned small amount of money (his salary should be publicly available as he's a state employee in Texas), perhaps as little as 7 years salary (if a full prof.)

This would be more of a psychological assessment than an environmental one, and you might be surprised by the results. For example, Thomas Midgely, famously, huffed straight-up tetra-ethyl lead at a press conference to prove to the world that it was a safe additive for gasoline. It took him about a year to recover, but he got away with it, and his chemical was widely sold.

So once again he is asked to resign due to a controversy but maintains he was leaving anyway....want to bet that there will be a scandal at the "Water Institute of the Gulf" (his new gig) in a year or two?
Below from a posting on stateimpact.npr.org by 'DoryHippauf '
Charles Groat Director of the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS ) resigned as Director on June 17, 2005.
WASHINGTON -- The U.S. Geological Survey chief resigned Thursday, but a spokeswoman said his departure has nothing to do with the ongoing investigation into e-mails that indicate his agency's employees may have falsified data on the Yucca Mountain project. Between 1998 and 2000, three USGS scientists working on water infiltration projects for the proposed Yucca Mountain facility exchanged emails revealing that they had altered or outright falsified the results of their research to produce desired outcomes.
At the hearing, Groat declined to discuss the e-mails in detail pending inspector general investigations. 'We have a 125-year reputation for sound, unbiased science," Groat said in written testimony submitted to the panel. "Anything that casts aspersions on that reputation disturbs us greatly. We, as do you, look forward the to completion of the ongoing investigations to fully determine the impacts and appropriate responses."

I agree with you, though "goiter" probably isn't the best example. It's caused by iodine deficiency, not crap in the water.

The problem with the crap in the water is that it takes years, or decades, to manifest itself. It shows up as an increase in chronic illnesses, so you can't claim all by yourself that your case was caused by them. It's very difficult to trace health problems to any one source of pollution.

By the time you've managed to put together a rock-solid case that can survive the FUD the industry will put together, the specific entity to blame has "gone bankrupt" and sold off their assets.